A great deal of interest is presently being shown in the development of alternative energy sources. One type of energy in which people are showing interest in is that from the wind. New and more efficient wind turbine generators are being developed, but these need to be placed on towers which are easy and economical to erect. The present invention relates to a novel method to build a wind tower which is more economical and faster to erect than existing wind towers.
Large towers, forty or more feet tall, are needed to support wind turbines in that the generators are heavy and the towers also need to withstand strong lateral forces caused by the wind. Other towers have been created which are segments of frustroconical sections welded together, which requires a lot of talent in the field to weld, hence making them expensive to acquire and build. Various towers have been described in recent patents such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,935,639 for a revolving power tower, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,272,929, both of which are incorporated by reference.
This invention relates to the method of making a wind turbine tower.
The method of making the tower of this invention involves using a plurality of sections with each section being made from a series of rings. The rings are preferably welded together. The method uses rings, wherein each ring in a section has an identical outer diameter to the other rings for that section. This method of assembly uses at least two transition sections, at least one of which is frustro-conical and in the form of a ring. One T-shaped flange and two L-shaped flanges are also used in the method.
The present invention is a method for making a wind turbine tower comprising the following steps: (1) forming a first plurality of rings and assembling the first plurality rings into a bottom section having a first end and a second end, and wherein each ring in the first plurality of rings has an outer diameter identical to the outer diameter of the other rings in the bottom section; (2) forming a second plurality of rings and assembling the second plurality rings into an upper section having a first upper end and a second upper end, and wherein each ring in the second plurality of rings has an outer diameter identical to the outer diameter of the other rings in the upper section, (3) welding a T-shaped flange to the first end, (4) forming a transition ring and securing the transition ring to the bottom section using an L-shaped flange; (5) on said upper section, securing a second L-shaped flange to said first end, and a third L-shaped flange to said conical transition ring; (6) securing said bottom section to said upper section by connecting the L-shaped flanges.